The Williamsville East Flames’ run through the postseason has ended after a 4-2 loss in the NYSPHSAA Division II semifinals to Section III’s Skaneateles Lakers at the LECOM Harborcenter on Saturday.
The defeat has naturally left the Flames feeling empty and wondering what could have been.
“You can't make mistakes in big games, and we did today,” Flames coach Mike Torrillo said.
“We had some great scoring chances near the end and put some pressure on them, but we just couldn’t get that third one. I’m proud of the seniors, nobody quit and everyone played until the end.”
On the other side of the coin, the Lakers were ecstatic – especially because the team is now on the verge of completing a three-peat of state titles, something no other school has ever done in New York State.
“Now that we’ve won, we've been in the last six out of nine state championship games and it's been a heck of a decade,” Lakers coach Mitch Major said. “The two years that we didn't have during COVID, we were undefeated, so I wish we could have had those two back but it's a testament to the great village of Skaneateles that we live in.
“We're a hockey town. We have a beautiful facility. Kids are on the ice all the time, and they just love coming to the rink every day. So whether we win tomorrow or not, it's just been a heck of a run.”
After a first period in which there was no score, the second was where everything came together for the Lakers and everything fell apart for the Flames. About three minutes in, the Lakers struck first on a wrist shot by Tyler Calkins that barely trickled past Flames goaltender Jacob Sexton.
Beginning around the nine-minute mark, however, was a three-minute stretch that the Flames would like to have back if they could. Kaden Rutledge converted on a three-on-one opportunity, Braedan Taggart scored on a wrist shot two minutes later and with 6:12 to go Rutledge added another goal to put Williamsville East in a four-goal deficit.
“We made a couple of mistakes in the second period – we had a bad line change on that three-on-one, we made a mistake and credit to a good team, they scored on it,” Torrillo said. “I thought we were a bit tired too. We didn’t have the same jump that we had earlier in the game.
“It was just stuff that we don't normally do. I don't know if that's because of a little bit of excitement today or what, but we got caught up in it.”
After a timeout was called by Torrillo to stop the bleeding, his Flames responded with a pair of goals – one by Nathan Sucher in the second and another by Brody MacDonell midway through the third – to cut the deficit in half. But it wasn’t enough.
“I thought we played great in the third period – once we scored I thought we got going a little bit, but Skaneatles is a good hockey team,” Torrillo said. “Plus when you’ve got a pretty good goalie like (Danny Angelina) who makes 42 saves, that makes it harder.
“It’s unfortunate. If you take the second period away, we played fine but that’s why you’ve got to play a full game. Our goal is to win periods, but it turns out that we only won one today.”
Photo Gallery Credit Shawn Turri/WNYAthletics
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